A child smiles at the camera as she pretends to fly in front of a rainbow in Bolivia.

Where we work

Support children in Latin America

Together, we can bring hope to children

Our work in Latin America focuses on the poorest countries, where children are most vulnerable. Issues such as lack of clean water, low and unstable family income and natural disasters lead to high poverty levels that can hinder children’s education and life prospects.

Thanks to your support, our work in Latin America is improving the lives of thousands of children living below the poverty line. From training and food supplies when needed, to large infrastructure projects and Disaster Group communities to ensure people become less vulnerable to future shocks, we can offer children hope for a better life thanks to generous World Vision supporters.

Where World Vision works in Latin America

Our work in

Bolivia

One of the poorest Latin American countries, Bolivia faces declining economic growth and many children are threatened by exploitation from human trafficking and cyberbullying. Your support is helping the most vulnerable children flourish; we are targeting the threat of trafficking with programs and laws focused on digital safety, nine in 10 kids under 5 have received critical vaccinations thanks to health training, and the rate of children under 5 with acute malnutrition has dropped to 5 percent.

Our work in

El Salvador

After years of civil war and the displacement and poverty it has caused, El Salvador has been called the world’s most violent country. Frequent natural disasters only exacerbate the hardship people face. We work to provide people with a safe environment; with access to drinking water, education about child protection, and longer-term solutions including training classes where people are prepared to be resilient to and respond to disasters.

Our work in

Guatemala

Guatemala has long been one of Latin America’s most unequal countries, with locals suffering from extreme poverty, violence, and years of climate change-driven drought. World Vision works to help families, and in particular youths find technical learning programmes and look for a career, and supports community programmes that tackle violence, particularly violence against women and children.

Our work in

Honduras

Since 1974, we’ve been helping the children of Honduras. Honduras is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, which profoundly affects the economy and contributes to the fact that almost half of rural families live in extreme poverty. We’re helping to support sustainable incomes through life skills classes, and ensuring children can get a quality education by creating larger classrooms and repairing and restoring existing structures.

Our work in

Mexico

24 million children and young people in Mexico have experienced at least one form of violence. We work to tackle this violence through community programmes, as well as provide children with training for careers that will give them economic independence, as well as projects such as children's orchestras to build community and self-confidence. In the areas where needed, we also work to provide clean water and sanitation support.

Our work in

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the least developed country in Central America, and one of the poorest. We focus on child protection and education, providing clean water and other sanitation projects, and family incomes, to work to transform the lives of Nicaraguan children. We run child protection classes to cover weighty topics such as self-protection, prevention of human trafficking, gender equality and assertive communication in a playful and reflective way so they can keep themselves safe.

Our work in

Venezuela

Once considered one of the most prosperous countries in the region, many Venezuelans are now struggling to meet their basic needs. People are fleeing life-threatening poverty and insecurity, and as often happens in crises, children are some of the most vulnerable. Many children have been separated from their families and have to face life fearfully and on their own. World Vision works to provide food and support to children and their families.

Support our work in Latin America

You can help transform the lives of the most vulnerable children:

3 year old girl from Senegal smiles to the camera wearing a pink and white top

Sponsor a child

Change a child's life. And support their community to lift themselves out of poverty.

Sponsor

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DEC Coronavirus Appeal

COVID-19 is devastating India. Vulnerable children in India and around the world need your help.

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Four children and an adult clapping and celebrating in front of their hut in Malawi

How you can help

Choose how you want to have an extraordinary, positive impact on vulnerable children's lives.

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Somali mother holding her child while sat in front of a makeshift tent in an internally displaced persons camp

Responding to emergencies

When war and disasters happen, we respond with immediate relief and long-term rebuilding.

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We coordinate with [World Vision trained] delegates to ensure no cases of domestic violence... they are watching and we know how to solve the case.

Silvia del Carmen

Deputy mayor in Cotoca de Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Sponsor a child in Latin America

Child Sponsorship is a unique relationship that brings real hope and a life-affirming experience. When you sponsor a child, you’ll help them move from surviving to thriving. We identify the child’s core needs and use your donation to provide these, keeping you updated on their progress all the way.

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Protect vulnerable children

World Vision works with communities to identify their needs and agree what will most improve peoples’ lives. Thanks to supporters’ generosity, we can undertake large scale or long-term projects like building water tanks to provide entire communities with safe, hygienic water supplies. By supporting Childhood Rescue, whatever is happening in the world, you know your donations will reach the children who need it the most.

Family in Honduras collect water from a dirty river

World Vision In Action

Supporting Johanna’s family

Johanna, 23, and her sons David, 5, and Noe, 3 gather water from a river in Honduras. Drinking dirty water has created perpetual health problems for the 3,000 people who live nearby - many of them children. “We found it was contaminated with Hepatitis A and poisons,” says Dr. Zulema Lopez, who blames the animals who drink and expel waste there and the pesticides that trickle into the river from the coffee and tobacco fields that provide residents with a meagre income.

Woman in Honduras clasps her hands to her face as she tears up

World Vision In Action

Supporting Johanna’s family

“It’s normal to see children throwing up and expelling worms,” says Ana, the clinic’s nurse. The clinic routinely treats children who are malnourished and suffering from diarrhoea—sometimes even cholera. If that’s not enough, the clinic gets its water from the very source of so much illness - the river. “We can’t even wash our hands in it,” Ana says.

World Vision In Action

Supporting Johanna’s family

Families suffer the most. Every day, Johanna would walk 6 kilometres to get water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. Three times a day, she would fill an old wheelbarrow with empty soda bottles and take her sons to the river. Now that World Vision is supporting the building of a water tank, the lives - and particularly the health - of Johanna, her children and the 3,000 nearby residents will vastly improve.

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More about our work

Thanks to the faithful support of people like you, our unique community-based model, refined and expanded over our 70-year history, can focus on key areas to ensure that all children, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender experience the fullness of life.

Our work is driven by a relentless desire to transform the lives of children so we partner with governments, peer organisations, institutional donors and businesses so together, we can have a greater impact in the lives of the families we serve. You can learn more about them and our work below.